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Childhood Memories Take Center Stage in Ross Rosenberg Collection

VALDOSTA -- Born in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1941, Ross Rosenberg has
said that most of the images in his collection at Valdosta State
University’s Odum Library are based on early childhood memories.
The artist donated several pieces to the university roughly two to
three years ago; others were purchased when he participated in a
campus gallery exhibit.

“The rounded chair, for example, comes from a memory of being in a
dark living room at night,” he noted, describing the large
paintings of chairs, houses, walls, and trees that hang on the
walls of the library’s second floor, north side. “There is a dim
light coming from down a long hall. I hear someone in the hall, and
I climb up onto the chair and hide between the arms on the
seat.”

“I am drawn to commonplace subjects, such as chairs and houses,
because they are comfortingly familiar, but at the same time, they
allow me to express feelings of mystery and foreboding,” he added.
“It is the ambiguity that involves me.”

VSU’s Ross Rosenberg Collection features 15 very big paintings and
drawings, 15 very tiny drawings, and two sculptures. All of his
works are studies in texture, from fine graphite to thick oil
stick, according to Deborah S. Davis, certified archivist, director
of VSU Archives and Special Collections, and chairwoman of the
Library Art Committee. They all deal with childhood memories and
the intersection between the memory and the unconscious.

“The paintings of this rounded chair are seen from a child’s eye
level, and they put the adult in the same size relationship to the
chair in the painting that a 2-year-old has to a real one,”
Rosenberg noted. “As this series developed, I began to focus more
and more on discovering ways to create texture, so some of them are
as much about how they were made as why they were made.”

Regarding his chair sculptures, Rosenberg explained, “When small
children sit in an overstuffed chair, the experience is like that
of being held by an adult. The seat is like a lap; the child leans
back against the chair and is held by the chair’s arms. The chair
sculptures were created with the intention of emphasizing this
relationship between the chair and the human body.”

Davis said Rosenberg’s tiny drawings are collectively known as the
Dream Series, created between January 1992 and March 1993. She said
that they were a “happy accident,” as the artist was working on a
small-scale sketch of a larger work when he noticed what looked
like eyes staring back at him. Using graphite, he drew what he saw
there, creating faces, animals, faces turning into animals.

Rosenberg said that whenever he tried to make the process
thoughtful, and perhaps fill in a blank spot, the drawing failed.
This series has been described as an exercise in
stream-of-consciousness drawing and texture, Davis noted.

The Ross Rosenberg Collection is one of two full collections that
helped facilitate Art in Odum, an initiative that resulted in the
library becoming a destination promoting education through the
unexpected. The other is the Lamar Dodd Collection of 20 paintings
and prints from a variety of significant 20th century and a few
19th century artists. Also hanging inside the Odum Library is
Amalia Amaki’s “For the Love of Books,” created in memory of
William H. Mobley IV, who supported the library through the
donation of books over the years, and four pieces from the Charles
and Jeannette Kessler Collection of East Asian Art.

On Friday, Oct. 28, the Odum Library will officially introduce the
VSU and South Georgia communities to Art in Odum. From 2 p.m. to 4
p.m., visitors can view the various exhibits, talk to some of the
artists, and learn more about the future of this ongoing project.
Refreshments will be served.

When asked why people should stop by Odum Library and take a look
at the Ross Rosenberg Collection, Davis said, “Because it’s fun.
The [Ross] Rosenberg collection is a study. The same images,
repeated in different sizes and different media, are a very
different viewing experience than the work of a group of artists,
such as is found in the Lamar Dodd Collection, on the first floor.
Here you see one artist exploring ideas from childhood that are
both comforting and menacing. Because of their size and the
repetition, these paintings surround the viewer. They seem to have
become part of their environment and play off our big chairs and
the other parts of the second floor.”

Rosenberg grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and attended the University
of Michigan, graduating with degrees in English literature and art
history while also studying drawing. Since then, he has lived and
worked in New York City and studied drawing, painting, and
sculpture at Parsons, drawing and printmaking at the School of
Visual Arts, and papermaking at Dieu Donné.

Rosenberg’s work has been displayed in the past at a VSU Fine Arts
Gallery show, “Works on Paper,” and several of his smaller
creations were purchased at that time, Davis said.

NOTE: The Office of Communications plans to release additional
information about the Art in Odum initiative in the coming days.
For more information on the Lamar Dodd Collection, visit www.valdosta.edu/news/releases/doddart.101411.